Each student is a violin.

Benoir said his parents bought him a Mickey Mouse drum set. He said, “I played it one Saturday morning too early, and the Mickey Mouse drum set vanished…” Ben said, “I could have been a drummer; I was probably five.”

The first festival of music dates to 582 BC in the ancient Greek Pythian Games. Citizens got together to enjoy hymns and instruments dedicated to Appolo the god of art and music. Music is in our DNA; it evolved from our ancestor’s bone and ivory flutes 43,000 years ago.

It’s obvious to me how music flows in the bloodstream of some of us. I came upon such a soul who goes by Benoir in Long Beach, NY; we chatted at one of his two Studionoir music studios, 323 Magnolia Blvd.

Ben Metzger comes from a long line of musicians: his grandpa played piano, his dad played piano and harmonica; they once played those instruments together in an early recording.

Ben’s family recalls Glenn Miller wanting Grandpa to go on tour with him, but family obligations prevented that.

His dad, a Korean War vet, died when Ben was three, but Ben is grateful for the music legacy his dad left to the family.

The Metzgers lived in Patchogue, Long Island when Ben was born, and he recalled his sister, Carolyn, playing the guitar when he was four or five. He said it was “a nylon string classical guitar she bought at Patchogue’s Family Melody Center; it had a cool soft, leather cover.” (Family Melody Center. is still there. They have been in business since 1956.)

It became apparent that Ben had vivid memories of his sister, that guitar—and its soft, leather cover. He said, “She played “Stairway to Heaven,” and I was a little kid and so amazed. She was a huge influence on me.”

As he spoke, it was as if he were transported in time, and he simply related to me his revisiting the objects and feelings of those days: the nylon strings, the soft guitar cover, and the “Stairway to Heaven.”

In reading “Why We Remember” by C. Ranganath, the author speaks of semantic memory, in which we pull up facts or knowledge, as opposed to episodic memory, in which we time-travel and experience feelings, “even re-experience events from the past.” It’s not just the memory of the fact, the object, the “guitar,” but the “feelings” of the time. Ben traveled to that episode in his life with closed eyes when he told me about it: the softness of the leather, the amazing feelings for “Stairway to Heaven.”

This was a sensitive, artistic musician before me.

At about that “Stairway-to-Heaven” time, Ben said his parents bought him that Mickey Mouse drum set that ended up in the garbage. John Canova, Ben’s brother-in-law, strongly influenced him. Ben said, “John was like a father figure to me; he was a Marine and a Fire Fighter. He played baseball with me, took me to games, got me into sports. He was best man at my wedding. But, the Mickey Mouse drum set?” Ben said he knew it was John who had thrown it away.

In the fourth grade, the students picked musical instruments. Ben said, “My cousin, Milton, a Carnegie-Mellon-trained pro, played a baritone horn. So when they mentioned that horn, I said, ‘Ohh, my cousin plays that,’ so they gave it to me even though it was the third choice on my list. Nobody chooses that.”

Ben said, “It’s huge for a skinny kid to lug around. It doesn’t play melodies, just background.” He imitated the sounds with his lips, a deep bruh, bruh—bruh, bruh. He said, ” I kept practicing and got a lot of stars. Then I asked for a sax, and they begrudgingly let me have one. I wanted to play melodies, and a sax was just cooler, so they let me.”

Ben’s sax teacher advised him to get a Yamaha keyboard. But he saw a red Kramer guitar for sale. He told his mom about it—she bought him both. Ben said, “She paid for guitar lessons and sax lessons; she was my number one supporter.”

About his name, Benoir:

Ben said that in seventh grade, he took French because all the cute girls were taking French. In French class, he had to pick a name to use, so as Ben, he chose Benoit. When Ben put his music on films with Charles Kramer in the Film Arts Revolution they created, he changed his name to Benoir. He did it because he liked noir films, blue-note artists, and jazz.

It appears to me that Benoit, meaning blessed, is also apt for Ben.

Ben said,”I went to Sachem High School (class of ’91), a very musical, artistic high school. At that time, it was one high school.” (Today, there are two, Sachem North and East, both fantastic.) Ben said, “It was like a college, it was so big. I was surrounded by amazing teachers. They had an after-school Rock band.” Ben said, “At about 15 or 16, with the guitar and keyboard, I started writing songs and put a band together.

Ben moved to Long Beach in 2007. Growing up in Patchogue he said, “I lived in a small house by the ferry, I always loved the water, the South Shore calls to me, it’s from growing up there.” He said he lived in so many places, including Miami and NYC. He said, “When I lived in Queens I wanted to go to the beach and sombody suggested Long Beach.

So I came here with my guitar and sat in the sand, noticing how beautiful it was and how many great people there were. The vibe starts with who comes here and why they come. For example, if you’re drawn to the ocean, you know it’s known as the city by the sea, and I think the ocean is a magnet for certain types of people, artists…and people who want to help people…It’s an open-arms community.”

Bens said, “It took me a long time to become a singer-songwriter. What I do has changed. When I first came to Long beach in 2007 all the bars were having similar guys singing Wonderwall or Sweet Caroline. I was doing more jazzy stuff, or blues or Niel Young.” He said, “I couldn’t find work at first, I had to learn Margaritaville or different songs that people would recognize so that I could slip in what I wanted to do. That was my process of getting to be a gigging musician in Long Beach.” But he said, “That took me away from being a recording artist of creative, original music or avant-garde music.”

Now, Ben gigs and creates his original music too. His latest albums:

He performs with Audrie Jones in my favorite tune of the album name, “Cres En Amor,” or Believe in Love. It was inspired by his recent visit to Puerto Rico: Cres En Amor.

Today, Ben is the director of performances at Arts in the Plaza in Long Beach; his wife, Sammi, coordinates the artists and vendors at Arts in the Plaza.

Ben said Arts in the Plaza is artists coming together for the good of the town through the West End Arts, the Long Beach Art League, and Artists in Partnership. I see these groups carrying on the spirit of the Greek Pythian games of 582 BC—for the good of the community. All communities need a musical arts plaza, they breathe life and love into the air. Arts, music, and otherwise, bring us together.

Ben plays with his band, Benoir, at other venues, such as Rock and Olive and Cabana in Long Beach. He playes with Bakithi Kumalo, Paul Simon’s Bassist, he’ll be playing with him in Bayport, NY July 13th. Ben’s played in Puerto Rico, England, Munich, Greece, Austria and Slovenia.

Ben said in France, “I met a man on a train who heard my music and asked me to play at his anniversary party in Paris.” Ben got off the train with a few of his musicians in Paris, the apartment overlooked the Eiffel Tower.” Ben said, “The wife hired a violin player, and the guy hired us.” They enjoyed stove-warmed wine. Ben said, “It was a magical night. I have a recording, and some of the songs on this record are from that time.”

After Storm Sandy hit Long Island Ben did a fundraising campaign for Long Beach. He played in Guys and Dolls in Valley Stream, Mulcahy’s, in Wantagh. He wrote and performed, “Long Live Long Beach”:

Ben sees the circle of life appearing in his experiences.

Ben said, “My grandmother, a twin, lived in a Brooklyn orphanage when her mom died.” Her twin lived with an adoptive family in New Jersey. Ben said his grandma would run away from the orphanage to see her twin in N.J. But the adoptive family there would say “we don’t want two of you, you need to go back.” Ben said, “That was very harsh.”

Grandma later left the orphanage and cleaned houses in Danbury Ct. Later in Ben’s life, he played Danbury and, said, “I made a name for myself there; it was a cool, cosmic thing.”

Ben said, “My mom grew up in Brownsville, Brooklyn, and East New York, which are very poor areas. And not too many years ago, a reggae artist, Jah Hammed, (Ben does the guitars on Jah Hammd’s Real Love,) used to pay me to record in Brownsville. He paid me the most amount of money for recording sessions than anybody. I was going back into where my mom grew up, into where some people consider a ghetto or a bad neighborhood, and I was making all this money to play reggae music with my guitar.” Ben said, “I love spirituality; I love connections, a path in what’s going on in the material world.”

Ben said his father’s mom, Elizabeth, worked at Jones Beach as a custodial cleaner. He said, “One of the highlights for me is I’m presenting my Studio Noir this July 16th—at Jones Beach.”

Ben said, “I got my physical things, like my hands,” holding up his long fingers, “but my support from my mom.”

When Ben said, “I love spirituality, a path in the material world,” it made me think of his journey as more of a stairway he’s been climbing. Since that first Greek music fest, humankind has come a long way up the DNA spiral. But we still carry on the gathering, the playing of instruments, the singing of songs. These gatherings bring us together—at a time when we most need to come together.

Ben wants to pass on the gift he’s received to others through his Studionoir. He said his students come from all strata of the community, and if a student’s family struggles to pay, he provides payment plans. From time to time he provides scholarships. He said, “I’ve given instruments, drum sets, keyboards, guitars, ukuleles.” People give him musical instruments because they know he will use them to nurture others.

We can clearly see nature and nurture joining in the Metzger family. I see it now in Ben and his students. It’s as if the student is the violin, Ben—the bow.

Ben had so much to offer and my space is limited. So I’m including here, for the first time, an oral history recording I do for the Long Beach library’s archives. In it, you will hear Ben’s voice with much more detail about Long Beach’s musical artists, Ben’s students, supporters, Arts in the Plaza, and his hopes for the future:

Also, please click here: For more about Benoir.

Be well,

Leebythesea